Destination: 2 Kings 1-25 | Skip Heitzig

[Music] this book begins with Elijah being taken up in a whirlwind and concludes with the kingdom of Judah under siege by Babylon in between the northern tribes of Israel go into a Syrian captivity and so we discovered that this book is a record of steep decline with only a few bright spots here are some positive events from second Kings southern kingdom of Judah did enjoy the periodic leadership of good Kings such as Hezekiah Josiah and Josiah these were men who exhibited godly leadership during dark times in Israel's history but sadly men like these were the exception tonight we're in the book of second Kings and if it seems like I talked fast on Wednesday night it's because we're gonna cover the whole book of second Kings tonight like we did first Kings last week so to cover that kind of material requires a fast-talking pilot and I'm that pilot I'll talk rapid tonight and it is a flyover just so you understand the general gist of this we have been through the Bible and second Kings included in-depth verse by verse and it's on CD and it's on tape and it's archived you can pull it down and listen to it but this is flying over and just like when a pilot reaches cruising altitude and says and if you look to your left you see the Grand Canyon and if you look to your right that kind of stuff will be noticing certain things summing up a great deal and getting the jest because what we're trying to do in the next several months in finishing this up by God's grace is showing how it all fits together well I notice by reading USA Today today that last night American Idol started well I've always been intrigued by that title by the way it's sort of a very honest title an honest admission American idolatry but as it was the opening program last night and the opening program is the one where they they highlight all the rejects and yet it is like one of their most highly rated programs it's interesting the article read and here's the title idol starts out bad and fans love it and here's a sentence from it a couple of them TV shows usually don't boast about how bad they can be but that's the big selling point for American Idols hugely popular season opening auditions and as you know if you've seen the program they they mix the very bad and the very good they show the ones who've been accepted and are gonna make it to the next level and the ones who are really bad but they for some reason think they're good and they get in and it's very entertaining very good very bad this period of history in the book of second Kings in Israel's history is similar to that you have a mix of the very good and the very bad you've got great Kings not many but some and you've got some very bad Kings you got a lot of those so it's almost like we have parallel tracks of degeneration and regeneration of unrighteousness and righteousness the book A Tale of Two Cities begins it was the best of times and it was the worst of times two parallel tracks this is a tale of two kingdoms not two cities but two countries and if you remember from last study first Kings the the big event in first Kings is the division of the kingdom it's not a United monarchy with one king reigning over the country it is split from north to south ten tribes in the north that's the nation of Israel and then the nation of Judah the two tribes in the south with Jerusalem is the capital the big event in first Kings is the division of the kingdom the big event in second Kings is the collapse of the kingdom or the captivity you might say there's a couple of different superpowers and there will be the taking over of these two kingdoms in the north and in the south so I'm gonna give you a division of the book very simply simply into two slices because basically what you have here and if you've read some of the chapters you know there's a lot of lists of names of kings and a couple of prophets will meet them tonight but you have a list of kings and how long they reigned and something notable about them and you'll notice that it it'll tell you about who reigns in the north and then who reigns in the south and if they intersect or interact at all and it just sort of follows that through but there is a distinct division in second Kings chapters one through seventeen is the first division chapter eighteen through twenty five is the second division that first section you could call it the struggling kingdoms plural the struggling kingdoms the Kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah they're struggling they're going down and sometimes going up because a prophet will speak to them and there'll be a mild period of repentance and they go back down they're struggling and sometimes fighting each other and then you have in chapter 18 through 25 the surviving kingdom singular so the struggling kingdoms and the surviving kingdom that's Judah I say it survived because the kingdom of Israel will go into captivity the kingdom of Judah will survive for a period of about a hundred and fifty years but the bookends were it finally collapses as well so the struggling kingdoms and the surviving Kingdom something to note about God and you see it in the in the Ministry of two notable prophets and that is God is a pursuing God he's a merciful God he loves before he judges to reach out he loves to give people as many chances as is possible before he ultimately judges them and it's a theme it just doesn't happen here though it's repeated here you see it repeated as a theme throughout the scriptures God pronounces a judgment gives a warning but before he ultimately judges it says if he reaches his hand out and says now let's consider this you don't have to go in that direction it can be changed you could turn around and that's a theme we see even in the New Testament one of the most notable examples of that is with a fella by the name of Judas Iscariot the one who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver the one who had pre-arranged the arrest of Christ even before the Last Supper that's why I find it interesting that at the Last Supper Judas was sitting - Jesus left and if anybody knows ancient Middle East custom dog honored guest was at the right hand and at the left hand of the master and you only get there by invitation so before the supper I'm sure Jesus walked up to Judas and says Judas I want you sitting right next to me buddy right to my left hand that's why Jesus said the one that I give the SAAP to and it's it's typical that Passover to take a piece of the bread and dip it in that bitter herb sauce and pass it to the left gave it to Judas it was as if he was reaching out I know what you're doing I know what you're about you don't have to go this direction and then as he got up Jesus finally said to him whatever you do do it quickly well something to note is that in spite of these kingdoms struggling and the one surviving in spite of these Kings going from bad to worse there are two prophets and their names are similar Elijah and Elijah and it's as if God sends them in the midst of a faltering Kingdom to defibrillate the heart that's the only term I can really think of they're they're like failing they're having heart failure and these prophets come in trying to defib the heart and revive the patient but it's too late so you've got some wicked Kings but you've got some great messengers that come and we'll notice them especially in the first eight chapters well let's again in Chapter one and we'll be highlighting a few of chapters and verses as we go this is the struggling kingdoms of Israel in the north and Judah in the south now as we begin in chapter one we're beginning with the end of Elijah's ministry and the beginning of Elijah's ministry how many people get those two prophets confused honest show of hands yeah most of us do the rest of you aren't telling the truth that's okay we all do because their name sounds so similar and that's because that's what they sound like in English Elijah and Elijah and Hebrew would be very easy to tell the difference the first prophet is pronounced Eliyahu Eliyahu the second one Elisha so there's a big difference between that pronunciation but we're speaking English so we lie Joe and Elisha they sound very very similar to each other but they're very different and we're gonna read about that succession tonight go down to verse 8 of chapter 1 as we see a description of Elisha the prophet by the way the chapter opens up with a Hosea now you're gonna have a lot of names tonight I don't care if you remember them but you'll remember the two kingdoms a 'has ayah is the king in the north jehoram is the king in the south as the book opens and Elijah and Elisha will interact with them verse 8 chapter 1 describes a life jaar known as he's called a hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist sounds like Bigfoot and he said it is a light job the tishbite now go to chapter 2 verse 1 it came to pass when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that he lied jaw went with Elijah from Gilgal verse 9 of chapter 2 so it was when they crossed over that Elijah said to Elisha ass what may I do for you before I am taken away from you Elijah said please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me what does that mean a double portion simply this I want to be your successor I want that same spirit of God that is operating so powerfully in your life that allows you to not operate in your own strength but see God's continual power I want that I want to continue where you leave off I want to pick up where you leave off the idea of a double portion comes from the laws of inheritance you may remember way back in the Torah and the first five books of Moses that the firstborn son got a double portion of dad's inheritance that was his right as he was going to become the successor in that family as leader so that's the idea of it not I want twice as much as you have that's not the idea the idea is I want to succeed where you leave off so verse 10 he said you've asked a hard thing that's an interesting thing to say hey I want to operate by the same spirit and power that you don't want the double portion I want that law of inheritance for you've asked a hard thing why would he say that because frankly it's hard to be a prophet you read about their stories you read about their lives being a spokesperson for the Lord to a nation to a group of people is difficult and I would even say this sentence to anyone who says I want to be in the ministry I want to be a pastor I would say what you ask is a hard thing it's not easy to do that but notice what he says after that nevertheless if you see me when I am taken from you it shall be so for you but if not it shall not be so then it happened as they continued on and talked that's suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire and separated the two of them and Elijah when up by a whirlwind into heaven it's wild I'll admit it it's better than American Idol it's wild he's he's taken up into heaven in a whirlwind Elijah does not die he's taken up into heaven this makes him an exception to the rule where it says it is appointed unto every man once to die and after this the judgment this guy doesn't die now I believe that he ultimately will die no just follow me for a second this is the time to really pay attention see it's my personal belief that just like the long-standing Jewish tradition that Elijah will come that Elijah will come as it says in the last chapter of the Old Testament chapter 4 of Malachi that God will send Elijah the Prophet before the Great and dreadful day of the Lord that's that final epic period of judgment in the Tribulation Period and he will turn the hearts of the children to the father's and the father's to the children I believe that it's very possible that we see in the book of Revelation Elijah mentioned now I'm going to read this section to you really briefly it's Revelation chapter 11 it concerns the two witnesses that come in the Tribulation Period and listen to their description revelation 11 if anyone wants to harm them fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies you've heard of bad breath this is deadly breath and if anyone wants to harm them he must be killed in this manner they have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy which incidentally is three and a half years and they have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire and the text goes down in Revelation and says when they had finished their testimony the Beast that rises up out of the bottomless pit will make war against them overcome them and kill them the question is always well who are these two strange witnesses it's my belief it's very possible that it's none other than the prophet Elijah and Moses the lawgiver who returned as a testimony would be the greatest testimony to the Jewish nation Moses the great lawgiver and then the greatest of all prophets to the Jewish nation is Elijah and be those final bright light before the final day of judgment at Armageddon occurs now I I make that statement based on a few clues number one is the past if you think back in your Old Testament to some of the things that Moses and Elijah did it's very similar isn't it for instance Elijah brings fire down from heaven first Kings chapter 18 to consume the sacrifices we mentioned that last week also in 2nd Kings chapter 1 when the King demands that Elijah be brought before him he sends 50 men to go get Elijah and they look up to him he's sitting up on a hill and they say you men of God come down here the King wants to see you and Elisha said well if I am a man of God let fire come down from heaven and wipe you guys out file fire falls from heaven they all died 50 of them 51 of them another group is dispatched same thing happens a third group comes in the the leader of the third group finally says please spare our lives please please come down and talk to the king and so he does but fire falls down from heaven and then also remember back in the Old Testament Moses turned the Nile River into blood and brought all sorts of plagues a similar description as we see in revelation 11 so first clue is the past second is that prophecy that I mentioned in Malachi chapter 4 Elijah will come and even Jesus who said John the Baptist is a partial fulfillment turn to his disciples who said you know what it we'll future tents still come and even to this day at Passover the Jews leave the door open and a chair at the Passover table for Elijah just in case he would happen to show up at their Passover a third clue is precedence New Testament precedence for them to come again is already established in two of the Gospels when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration two persons were transfigured with him and they were Moses and Elijah that's found in Matthew 17 in mark chapter 19 Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ and they're speaking about the kingdom and then finally their passing is a clue they're passing the way they died as I said Elijah didn't die he was taken up into heaven as we read in a whirlwind Moses died and the Bible says in Deuteronomy God buried him and nobody knows where his body was now we get to the New Testament we read a very strange passage in the book of Jude verse 9 that says Michael the Archangel in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses it's an odd scripture we have insight into the fact that you have an an angel of God and Satan fighting over a dead corpse you know I would look at that and go what's the point of this argument unless of course God wanted to use the body of Moses for some future purpose ie resurrection bringing him back as a testimony with Elijah in the tribulation period to speak to the people of Israel and 144,000 of them will be saved interesting thought is it not well Elijah the second dude the guy that asked for the double portion not only did he do lots of miracles that are recorded here we'll only touch on a couple but he also confronts the kings of Israel and Judah and in Chapter three he confronts King Jehoram down in Judah but I'm taking you to chapter four now in Chapter four we have a couple little highlighted stories a couple little cameos of the prophet Elijah Elisha I better really say that correctly tonight Elisha a couple of little stories about some of the miracles he worked one is with a poor Widow and the other is with a shunammite woman now I'll explain those terms in a minute but here's the deal the chapter opens up with a widow her husband died the creditors want money she's left destitute finally the creditors come and threaten to take her sons and sell them into slavery enters now the Prophet Elisha who says I'll tell you what you do go get a container of oil bring it into your house get as many empty containers that you can from all your neighbors anyone in any of the chat bring him inside the house close the door and take whatever little oil you have and start pouring it and she poured it and it filled up miraculously all of the jugs of oil are the empty vessels that she had and then Elisha the prophet said now sell them and you'll be able to live off that income and pay off your creditors that miracle was mentioned now also in that chapter is the story about a couple living up in unum the Shunammite woman there was a husband and wife up in a little village up north little villages called shoot-'em-up in the up in the northern coasts of Galilee and it seems that they saw Elisha the prophet traveling a lot and so woman said to her husband you know we ought to do honey he's prepared like a little guestroom for this guy you know when he's in town he can stay in the in the guest bed and we can give him food etc let's just take care of this prophet so they outfitted this little room and Elisha stayed there whenever he was in Schuneman town and sort of as a reward he prophesied that this couple who didn't have a child would within a year's time have a baby boy and miraculously that occurred a boy was born the boys started growing up but one day out in the field the boy grew faint grabbed his head he had some kind of a splitting headache we don't know if it was sunstroke or whatever and he fell over presumed dead and she's so upset the child that God gave her is now dead and she searches now for the prophet Elijah so chapter 4 verse 27 they didn't find Elijah but they found his servant now when she came to the man of God at the hill she caught him by the feet but gazai that's the servants name came near to push her away the man of God said let her alone for her soul is in deep distress and get this and the Lord has hidden it from me and he hasn't told me so here's the prophet Elijah saying you know this woman is really troubled and for some reason God hasn't told me what's troubling her now the reason I'm stopping there and having you noticed that is can you imagine being so in tune with God that you're surprised when he doesn't reveal something to you that's going on in a person's life it's shocking Elijah I should know about this this should be my radar screen God hasn't revealed it to me well it is revealed by the woman and Elijah comes and spreads himself over breathes in the child and the child comes back to life in Chapter five is a great story about naman who was a commander for the Syrian army a field commander who though he was a powerful man had a dread disease in that time some kind of a skin outbreak all under the category of leprosy he was a leper he didn't know what to do he had in his household a slave girl an Israeli slave girl who knew about Elijah and said oh if only if only my master could get ahold of Elijah the Prophet he's living in Samaria I know that my master could be healed well naman hears about that and goes down to meet Elisha the prophet so chapter 5 verse 9 naman went with his horses and chariot and he stood at the door of Elijah's house picture the scene he's a dignitary he's come not only on his steed but he's got a lot of people with him no doubt he's a field commander and it's typically customary that if some dignitary shows up you go out to greet him it's common protocol it seems that Elisha the prophet didn't follow common protocol he didn't care about any dignitary he's a servant of God after all why should he pander to some human dignitary so verse 10 Elisha sent a messenger to him saying go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean so Elisha doesn't come out and say well good to meet you I heard so much about you you're such a wonderful he just said to his messengers go tell him you want to fix this go dunk in the Jordan seven times and you'll be clean but naman became furious and went away and said indeed I said to myself he will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord is God and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy so you got a commander with an expectation of a man of God I expect him to come out and do this he didn't do it he didn't fulfill his expectation and he goes on are not the abana and the far par these are two rivers up north where he's at the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel could I not wash in them and be clean so he turned and went away in a rage the jordan river is like the rio grande on a bad day okay the rio grande has some beautiful spots but you know there's some places over it's really narrow and and muddy and the jordan river up around where they were was just this muddy little stream it wasn't like the mighty mississippi or even these rivers mentioned here it's like a little puddle and it's really brown and muddy and so we imagine this great commander shows up and elisha didn't even come out just says hey listen go give him a message go tell him to dunk in that dirty muddy river seven times he'll be fixed he gets angry it's like you only just go in the water I could have done that up at home this is ridiculous Elijah the Prophet true God's power is gonna have this man healed but it brings up a very interesting and I say an important principle God's people do come with expectations of some things to happen or men or women of God leaders to perform certain ways and they can be disappointed when those expectations aren't met for instance and this is just an example somebody will come into a counseling office and say we're having problems in our marriage and if it's a good counselor he will quickly assess the situation and give biblical principles on how that couple can change their relationship and hence fix the problem some people don't want the problem fixed as much as they want to be coddled just just understand and Pat me on the back and there's room for that the Bible even says that we're to encourage each other but as it is with name and so it could be said with us do you want to be coddled or do you want to be cured here you want me to come out and wave my hand and make you feel really good or do you want this problem fixed if you want the problem fixed get in that muddy crazy little river and it'll work and I can just picture named and he goes okay walks in the river and he dunks one time and people are looking at him maybe his other men are kind of snickering at him he goes down once he got to do six more times comes up he's all wet this ridiculous goes down again comes up he's still wet and mud hanging off all over him but on that seventh time he came up and he was healed it was miraculous no he didn't get the personal attention that he wanted the Prophet to give him but he was cured the problem went away now chapters six through eight there are more miracles of Elijah as God is providing a witness to the nation I'm taking you now to chapter 8 verse 16 and I'm purposely taking you to certain sections because in the Bible from 30,000 feet I want you to not only get the overall picture I want you to see how the New Testament in the Old Testament intertwine chapter 8 verse 16 gives us insight into the covenant that God makes now in the fifth year of joram the son of Ahab the king of Israel Jehoshaphat having been king of Judah jahar am the son of Jehoshaphat began to reign as king of Judah he that is johor 'm was 32 years old when he became king and he reigned for eight years in Jerusalem now he served at first as let's call him Co King co-regent with his father Jehoshaphat then his dad died and he continued the reign without him alone verse 18 he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel just as the house of Ahab had done for the daughter of Ahab was his wife and he did evil in the sight of the Lord yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for the sake of his servant David as he promised him to give a lamp to him and his sons forever ahora m-- happened to be the king that introduces baile worship into the southern kingdom okay just like Ahab his father-in-law introduced baile worship with Jezebel into the northern kingdom Joe harem introduces this idolatrous pagan worship into Jerusalem and all of Judah now remember back in the Old Testament book of Genesis God promised that the tribe of Judah would be kept and preserved because the Messiah would come through the tribe of Judah Genesis 49 the scepter will not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes and we told you that that's a messianic prophecy Judah would be protected okay now with that in mind get ready for some spiritual warfare here because the narrative goes on and we have more Kings that are displayed and mentioned here in the north and in the south more intrigue more where warfare but watch this go to chapter 11 I'm having you skip ahead now past some of the names past some of the intrigue to a very key verse chapter 11 verse 1 when a Celaya the mother of a Hosea saw that her son was dead she arose and destroyed all the royal heirs everyone who could succeed from the house of David in the tribe of Judah and become the King destroying all of the royal heirs wiping out the bloodline but jeho Sheba the daughter of King George IV Hosea took joash the son of Ahaz aya stole him away from among the king's sons who were being murdered and they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom from atholea so that he was not killed so everybody was killed except one so he was hidden with her in the house of the Lord for six years while Athlon rained over the land no eventually this guy will become the king of Judah but think about it this is from a human perspective a close call for salvation history it's a close call it reveals a very intense spiritual battle that is happening humanely on the human level the lineage of King David the royal heirs were almost wiped out you know what that means spiritually messianic Lee it could hinder indeed it would hinder the Messiah's coming what if all of them were destroyed and yet the prophecies say that someone from the seed of David will become the savior of the world if you don't have a royal seed any longer if they're all destroyed God's promises will be thwarted okay back in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve fell the Satan the serpent deceived at our first parents and they fell they sinned and and so God gave a prediction right he said to the serpent he said this I will put enmity between you Satan and the woman between your seed and her seed he ultimately Jesus Christ shall bruise or crush your head and you Satan will bruise his heel the prediction is that eventually some child is going to be born a he a male child who will crush Satan's power while at the same time the best that Satan will do is bruise Jesus Christ Jesus died on a cross but that paid for the sins of the world okay ever since that prediction it was Satan's counter-attack to discover who the royal seed is going to be so he could destroy him now this answers a lot of questions for us for instance Cain killing Abel why because Abel was the righteous seed of Adam and Eve so Satan inspired Cain to kill Abel so that seed was removed so God raised up Seth and the line continued through Seth and then second Satan created such havoc on earth that the whole world was judged by God in the flood God destroyed the entire world except for one family and that was Noah and his seed and the lineage continued here's a third point Satan motivated Esau to destroy Jacob the son of promise Isaac's promised son here's another example Pharaoh came up with a bright idea hey let's kill all of the male Hebrew children when Hebrews have their babies if it's a male kill it throw it in the river if it's a girl let it live what was that all about it was Satan's attempt to destroy all of the seed of the Jews so that the Messiah would be hindered from coming we go on in history and we find that Saul tried to destroy David 1st and 2nd samuel record several instances of that to destroy the Messianic line another one is Haman remember the book of Esther Haman puts out this weird edict to destroy all of the Jews in the land of mass genocide again attempt to destroy the royal seed now a celaya this crazy woman says let's take the entire royal household and kill them all why because she wants to be in charge and have no competition but she's inspired by Satan so that God's promises couldn't be fulfilled now you follow that all the way through the Bible you come to the New Testament you have Herod the Great saying all of the male children and Bethlehem should be killed and attempt again to kill Jesus Christ Jesus Luke chapter 4 goes into the synagogue says I'm the fulfillment of the scripture they take him out to a brow of the hill upon which the city was built try to throw him over he escapes from their midst the temptation of Jesus Christ Satan takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple hey jump jump if you're really the Son of God God will send His angels to protect you of these suggestions and attempts is a definite counter-attack to destroy God's promised Messiah now when you put it in that frame it puts a whole different view on anti-semitism it gives it a whole different complexion it's satanically inspired now here's the premise what if God's promise of redemption required the existence of a nation and the continuance of that nation that would mean then if I could destroy that nation I being Satan I hate to personify it that way but if Satan could destroy that nation he will afford of God's plan that's a heavy statement this is exactly what we see in the scripture and it is all summarized in Revelation chapter 12 you can chase that down on your own later on so here is one of those examples where there is the attempt to destroy the royal seed doesn't happen one of them is kept becomes the next King and the lineage continues chapter 12 verse 1 joash in the seventh year of Jehu jehoash became King and he reigned 40 years in Jerusalem his mother's name was Z by ax of Beersheba strange names I'll admit that Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the Lord in the days in which jehoiada the priest instructed him so a priest becomes a mentor to a political figure I love that and because of this man's mentoring and influence you now have a godly King one of the few living by the book living according to the Spirit of God a politician with a spiritual heart however verse 3 but the high places were not taken away that people still sacrifice and burn incense on the high places as long as Joya did the priest was alive the King did okay as soon as jehoiada the priest his spiritual mentor died his spiritual life fell apart now I'm gonna read you a scripture you may want to write in the margin of your Bible or on your notepad second chronicles chapter 24 verse 17 gives us the rest of the story now after the death of jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king and the king listened to them therefore they left the house of the Lord God their fathers and served wooden images and idols and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem because of their trespass yet he sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord and they testified against them but they would not listen it's interesting and it's sobering and here's the lesson if your faith in God needs to be propped up by other people what happens when those props are taken away if your trust is in people to keep you and target and don't get me wrong we all need encouragement we all need instruction we all need example but if you're relying upon people rather than the relationship with God if those props are taken away your spiritual life could collapse that's why we all need our own relationship our own time our own interaction with God so that we can help others along now look at chapter 14 23 in the fifteenth year of Amaziah the son of joash the king of Judah Jeroboam the son of joash the king of Israel became king in samaria and reigned forty-one years and he did evil in the sight of the Lord and did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel since we have two different jeroboams mentioned he restored the territory of Israel from the entrance of hamath to the sea of Arabah according to watch this the word of the Lord God of Israel which he had spoken through his servant who Jonah the son of a Matai the Prophet who was from Gath heifer so I'm showing you here Jonah is mentioned in the Old Testament apart from the Book of Jonah when you mentioned Jonah people think of course of the story of the great fish and being swallowed and going to Nineveh and in that story and that was true but what second King shows us is that this prophet had a ministry of revival and preaching to the Northern Kingdom he was a prophet used by God even before he was sent to Nineveh from Israel and he was ministering in that and that quadrant of the land I'm bringing this up for a couple of reasons number one some people have a tough time with the whole idea of the existence of Jonah the Prophet they say he it's probably a myth it probably didn't happen it's probably some Old Testament myth just like you have Greek myths this is an old Hebrew myth about a big fish that swallowed a dude it's just not true it's it's a myth others say that it's probably an allegory it's a great story but it's simply an allegory where the great fish in the story of Jonah represents Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians and Jonah represents the people of Israel and Nebuchadnezzar was going to come in and swallow the people of Israel and destroy them or some will say probably what happened is there was a guy named Jonah he went on a boat and he had a wild dream and he was dreaming that this great fish came and swallowed him so it's either a myth an allegory or a dream here we know that the prophet Jonah existed historically he was a historical figure he really lived but apart from that we have the words of Jesus Christ who looking back to the Old Testament said as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights so he is staking his death burial and resurrection on historical Jonah who lived and went through all those things now we find out that he was a prophet in Israel even before the whole incident with the great fish by the way notice where he's from it says Gath heifer that's Galilee and I bring that up with a little smile because if you remember in the New Testament when Jesus was introduced to some of the Pharisees and scribes and they said this is Jesus of Nazareth they said Galilee he said no prophet has arisen from Galilee now these were Bible scholars who apparently had forgotten all about this text if they had just done their research and boned up a little bit on their Old Testament they would have remembered that Jonah was from Gath heifer a region in Galilee and so was Jesus from Galilee their Messiah now chapter 15 is a story about King Uzziah some of you will remember that name King Uzziah he's called here Azariah now here's his word it'll throw you a little bit sometimes there's two different names for the same dude so you get a little confused Azariah is mentioned here but he's called Uzziah in some of the rest of the chapters here and in other places verse 1 chapter 15 in the 27th year of Jeroboam the king of Israel Azariah the son of a messiah king of judah became king he was 16 years old when he became king is that frightening what if a president or a candidate was running who was 16 years of age would you vote for him well this guy was in the succession of Kings he became King at 16 and he reigned for 52 years in Jerusalem his mother's name was Jack Alya of Jerusalem now before you say those poor people to have such a young king he was one of their best kings he reigned 52 years he brought spiritual reform he expanded their borders etc verse 3 tells you a secret he did what was right the site of the Lord according to all that his father Amaziah had done he's one of the great kings of Judah there weren't many but he's one of them in fact in Isaiah chapter 6 chapter begins in the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord High and lifted up and the Train of his robe filled the temple see when King Uzziah died after a 52 year reign it so shook the people of Israel that they were wondering now what are we gonna do we had a great leader he's gone and God had to remind even the prophet Isaiah I'm still on the throne I haven't left I'm still in control even though your King has left you I the Lord God and sitting on that throne I haven't vacated it I'm fully in charge so he did what was right except verse 4 tells you some of his failures his flaws except the high places were not removed the people still sacrifice and burn incense on the high places then the Lord struck the king so that he was a leper until the day of his death and he dwelt in an isolated house and Jotham the king the king's son was over the royal house judging the people of the land so he was good but he wasn't perfect and he had some failures this was his failure number one as he got older he decided he wanted to be a priest so he dressed up as a priest one day and went into the very temple itself and started offering incense that's why God struck him with leprosy second thing he did is he went and he showed all of the vessels of the house of the Lord to foreign dignitaries who would eventually come in and seize control of the land so he kind of gave away the spoils and God's judgment fell upon him look at chapter chapter 18 Hezekiah is the king here verse 3 Hezekiah did what was right he's another good King in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done he removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden image and broke it in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it and called it in a hushed and he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so that after him there was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor who were before him folks this is the danger of relics remember back in chapter 21 of the Book of Numbers that bronze serpent that Moses held up in the desert the serpent on a pole and if they look to it they were healed evidently they kept that they preserved it and after a while they superstitiously attached significance to it rather than to the Lord using it and they started burning incense to it they venerated it they made it the big deal as people do to such things as the Shroud of Turin or I remember as a kid seeing a little card and on it a sliver of wood that my dad showed me and he was insistent that it was a piece of the original cross of Christ and as the story goes that they found this piece of wood outside of Jerusalem and it was kept in a monastery and the hierarchy of the church sold it off until it ran out and then they came up with a new miracle the perpetuation of the cross that miraculously more would appear two more would appeared and they sold thousands and thousands of crosses it was a miraculous perpetuation of the cross and people would pray to these things the children of Israel is now superstitiously following a brass serpent now we're about done because I'm gonna sum up a couple of things and we're gonna cover it back in chronicles when we go back but back to chapter 17 for just a second verse 20 this is the fall of the north here's the collapse verse 20 the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel afflicted them delivered them into the hands of plunderers until he cast them from his sight this is 722 BC he tore Israel from the house of David and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat King Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord made them commit a great sin for the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did and did not depart from the Lord until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight as he had said by all of his servants the prophets so Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria as it is to this day then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon Kusa alva Hamas and from here goes safar vehement placed them in the house the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities ok 722 BC Syrians come in take the northern kingdom captive here was their style they took people they left the poorest of the land let him remain they brought in other people from nations they had conquered and had them intermarry and repopulate the land with foreign people who brought in foreign gods so here you have the northern country Israel already in idolatry becoming polluted with even more gods and goddesses this group will become the Samaritans and this is precisely why in the New Testament the woman at the well of Samaria says to Jesus why are you talking to me a Samaritan woman for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans by the New Testament time there was a rival temple in Samaria that rivaled the worship down south and Jerusalem and a huge split and that split became because of this occurrence in 722 BC well chapters 18 through 25 is the surviving Kingdom of Judah they last another 150 years the Assyrian King Sennacherib met a weird named Sennacherib that conquered the northern kingdom goes down to Concord Jerusalem he's unable to do it they approached twice in 713 BC there they are to conquer Jerusalem having conquered Judah Hezekiah the King spreads out a letter before the Lord isaiah the prophet comes in this is found in Isaiah chapter 36 and 37 God answers his prayer Jerusalem is spared he comes again in 701 BC to conquer the land and this time look what happens in chapter 19 well let's look at chapter 18 verse 13 in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah Sennacherib the king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them now he's going to try to take Jerusalem okay I'll cut it short Hezekiah spreads out this letter that Sennacherib sends him saying we're going to destroy you before the Lord Isaiah says don't sweat it God's bigger than that now look at chapter 19 verse 35 it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000 and when people arose early in the morning there were the corpses all dead okay think of this as I say this next statement remember in the in the Garden of Gethsemane when they arrest Jesus and Peter's out there trying to defend Jesus with a sword cutting ears off do you put your sword away Peter don't you know that I could call right now on my father and get 12 legions of angels okay if one angel can destroy 185 thousand Assyrians imagine what twelve legions of angels hundreds of angels could do all at the disposal of Christ command his power well they're destroyed but a whole new power emerges I'm gonna take you to chapter 25 verse 1 and 2 and we'll close it up Assyria takes the northern kingdom captive they collapse 150 years past Judah is spared there the surviving kingdom and Kings are listed in the rest of these chapters but in 605 BC a guy named Nebuchadnezzar makes one of three successive attacks against Jerusalem in the very first attack he takes captive a whole bunch of choice young men one of them is named Daniel and eventually on the third attack 586 BC Judah will fall to the Babylonians chapter 25 verse when it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign in the 10th month on the 10th day of the month that Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it they built a siege wall against it all around so the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah ok briefly let me sum up the whole chapter after Josiah good King dies his son Jehovah has is on the throne he's only there three months barely enough time to warm the throne he's deposed by the Egyptians they put his brother alaya Kim on the throne changed his name to Jehoiakim he's there 11 years Jeremiah the Prophet warns Jehoiakim don't mess with the Babylonians whatever Nebuchadnezzar says do it he rebels against Nebuchadnezzar he is deposed by the Babylonians Jehoiakim is replaced by a guy named joe hoya chin he's there for three months and 10 days he is deposed and taken captive to Babylon Zedekiah is placed on the throne he starts a coup and eventually the Babylonians come in kill his sons and put his eyes out and he's taken captive to Babylon in the chapter ends now that's the end of the book what's the difference between these kingdoms answer in short the kings who ruled them the kingdom was only as good as the king he had a good king God would honor the reforms and the sincerity and the repentance and bring them prosperity when a bad king would take them further away from the Lord the judgment came swifter a kingdom is only as good as a king who's your king who's ruling in your life are you calling the shots are you at the wheel are you steering your life or have you have you given it over to the Lord letting him control your life a kingdom and a person is only as good as the king ruling his life I mentioned that I was on an airplane and they were boarding us and I don't know if we were in Orange County today or Phoenix but I think it was Phoenix yeah we were getting down to Phoenix they were bored and everybody on and I heard this lady a couple rows behind me said you mean this isn't the plane to Hawaii and it's very untypical for someone to get mixed up these days post 9/11 with the ticket but evidently she was on the wrong plane and she said as they announced that the temperature in Albuquerque not Hawaii was 31 degrees she said you mean this isn't the plane to Hawaii she had to get on the right plane imagine the shock if she's thinking she's gonna land in Hawaii to land in 31 degrees have you ever asked yourself as you live your life which direction you're going in and is it the proper direction it's a question everybody ought to ask because like these two kingdoms sometimes they went away from the Lord sometimes briefly they went back to the Lord God was always trying to reach in and lend a hand [Music]

Channel: Skip Heitzig

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Keywords: How to study the Bible, How to read the Bible, Jesus, Skip, Skip Heitzig, How to know God, 2 Kings, divided nation, Israel, true leadership, captivity, Assyria, Babylon, Judah

Id: i8YYkevdilc

Length: 59min 20sec (3560 seconds)

Published: Mon May 13 2019